Not Without a Fight
Annaleise Marie

Round Twenty-Seven

AN: Oh I just loved the feedback from last chapter. I got so many people actually telling me what they liked about it, and what they thought about the situation and gosh, it was just so nice to hear from you guys! Thanks so much for taking a second to drop such nice messages! Because of that, I worked extra-hard to get this chapter out speedy quick!

Things take a bit of a dark turn this chapter. So get ready for that. Those of you who recieved the preview already have a bit of an idea about it, but it's sure to be a bumpy ride, anyway. Hope you enjoy it! :D

I own a complete and total inability to give a fuck how Stephanie Meyer's first name is spelled, so I cycle between Stephenie and Stephanie, but I do not own Twilight. That would be, you know, Steph-whoza-whatsit.

X

RPOV

In most ways, Forks High is a fairly typical high school experience. Some genuinely good people, some completely poisonous assholes, dull classes, teachers who completely checked out years ago, jaded from too many years of dealing with teachers who just don't care, crappy cafeteria food... Pretty normal stuff.

But there was always one thing that stuck in my mind as simultaneously terrible and awesome all at once. Gym.

Forks High requires each student to acquire at least one credit for physical education, but the administration frankly could not care less when you do it. As a result, Bella, myself, and a couple of other senior girls were tossed in with a bunch of freshmen for our senior year, having put it off every other year.

"So how did your appointment go?" Bella asked quietly as we changed for class. I shrugged.

"I don't know, I'm still trying to decide," I said, gathering my hair up to secure with an elastic. I was just about to check the mirror in my locker to make sure that none of it was sticking up or doing anything else weird, but I had just barely caught a glimpse of myself when the door was slammed shut.

I followed the perfectly-manicured hand up a long, tanned arm to come face-to-face with Lauren Mallory. Her face was twisted into a horrible mix of anger and disgust. I rolled my eyes.

"What do you want, Lauren?" I asked. She smirked.

"I just wanted to let you know just how pathetic I think you are," she said. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"I don't give a fuck what you think of me, since given your past behavior I'm sure you couldn't recognize pathetic if it came up and slapped you in the face," I informed her. She sneered at me.

"I can't believe you're acting all high and mighty with me," she spat. "You're just a liar and a slut, and you had the nerve to say anything to me?"

"Why don't you just tell me what you're on about, Lauren? I thought we had covered the whole Emmett thing already. He's with me; get over it," I said, bending over to lace up my tennis shoes.

"Only because you're such a fucking liar. I wonder how he'll react when he sees the real you. Which he will, practically the whole school has already seen it. Did you really tell him you were raped? That's so sick, you know, there are people who really have been abused and you're just using it as a convenient excuse. That's just so low I can't even-"

"What are you talking about?" I asked. I had frozen, still bent over with my laces in my hand, but now I was staring up at Lauren. I couldn't process what she was saying. How did she even know about the rape? And she was accusing me of lying about it? And what was Emmett going to see?

I was starting to shake. Lauren sneered at me, holding out her phone. After a pause Bella took it from her, scrolling through the open page. She gasped, her hand going to her mouth.

"Rose..." she started, her voice shaking, "Royce put up a post claiming you're lying to get back at him for breaking up with you. There's a whole text section, and a picture from when you went there last month... and..."

She trailed off. I was trying to remember how to breathe. Bella cleared her throat and took in a shaky breath.

"And there's a video," she said. "He says it proves that what you guys did was consensual."

"And it proves that you're really nothing more than a lying slut," Lauren added and my vision went red.

X

EPOV

Monday was weird. I mean, it was always weird when Alice wasn't in first period, because it seemed like without a current crisis, Jasper and I didn't have a lot to talk about. But this was weirder than normal.

People were checking their phones a lot. Like, way more than normal. And they kept throwing me not-so-subtle looks. Some were pitying, some surprised, and a few even looked... scared.

By lunch I was about to lose my mind. By Biology I was sure I was about to completely lose my shit on someone if it didn't stop.

"Emmett?"

"What?" I snapped. I looked up to see Angela Weber, this mousy but generally friendly girl I had seen with Bella a few times. She looked simultaneously angry and horribly uncomfortable. A guy who I recognized as her boyfriend was standing beside her.

"Sorry," she said quickly. "I just... There's something Ben needs to tell you." She glared at her boyfriend and nudged him pointedly. Ben, for his part, didn't look like he wanted to tell me anything ever. He looked massively uncomfortable, shifting from one foot to another, his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

"Well, you know, there's this porno called Charlie's Anal," Ben said. "It's a spoof of Charlie's Angels, you know."

"Uh... okay," I said. I didn't even know this guy, and he was talking to me about porn? I knew this place was weird, but this had to be a whole new level.

"Well, when we saw... you know, the video, Ben recognized the audio track," Angela said. "It's not real. He must have dubbed in the audio from that porno."

I was sure that was just a perfect explanation at its root, but I still had no fucking idea what was going on.

"Wait, back up," I said. "What are you two talking about? Who dubbed what?"

Angela and Ben exchanged nervous looks.

"We just kind of thought you would have seen it by now," Angela said quietly. "I'm so sorry, Emmett, I didn't mean for us to be the ones to break the news."

"What news?" I asked, starting to get impatient. This couldn't be good if they were so nervous about me finding out. Hell, Ben looked more uncomfortable discussing what started this than his knowledge of porn. Which, you know, was pretty impressive if he could recognize random audio.

"Royce King posted a video on the internet... of him and Rosalie," Angela said quietly. I felt my blood run cold and I swear my stomach literally dropped. My pulse seemed to slow, as though it were pushing mud through my veins, and then speed up to triple time.

"What?" I asked. "There's a video?"

"He says that Rosalie is claiming that he raped her, and that the video proves that he didn't," Angela said. "But like we said, when we saw it, Ben recognized the audio. It's not Rose. Whatever sounds were actually there, he replaced."

"I have the video here if you want to see it," Ben said, holding his phone out. I'm sure he thought he was being helpful, but the very last thing I wanted to do was see that video, ever.

"You're sure it's fake?" I asked.

"Well, the video looks real enough, but the audio is definitely fake," he confirmed, slipping his phone back into his pocket. I guess he got the message that I wasn't going to take it.

I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. Royce had not only raped Rosalie, he had video taped it. Then he edited and posted it.

It wasn't to get back at Rosalie. I thought about the last time I had seen him, his promise that he wasn't done with me.

He had done all of this to her to get back at me.

X

RPOV

I don't remember standing up. I don't remember grabbing Lauren by her hair. I don't remember slamming her head into the locker. I don't remember her falling down. I don't remember the other girls fleeing the locker room, leaving just Lauren, Bella, and me.

The first thing I remember after Bella's news about the video and Lauren's hissed words was me standing over Lauren, my foot connecting over and over again with her stomach. I wondered why she didn't curl up, try to protect herself. Maybe she was unconscious. My only thought about that was that it was a shame she wouldn't remember this.

I was screaming something unintelligible, each word punctuated by a swift kick to her gut. It may have just been an endless string of profanity. It may have been a cohesive sentence. I don't know. Bella was grabbing the back of my shirt, her feet planted against the linoleum, trying to drag me away but having no luck since the floor was slick.

Lauren had vomited.

It was this that made me stop. This returned me to my body and my mind. I went still and suddenly Bella and I both lurched backwards as I stopped resisting, slipping and falling to the floor with a sick wet smack.

I realized that there were tears running down my face. Bella was still gripping my shirt, muttering something that I couldn't comprehend, one arm wrapped around my shoulders, pinning me to her. I couldn't breathe. My vision didn't seem to be working right, colors and patterns flitting in and out of sight, their edges blurred. Something acrid-smelling was caked on my legs and gym shorts.

That's right. Lauren had vomited.

She gave a pitiful little groan and a sort of a twitch. I didn't feel as vindicated as you would think. I didn't feel angry. I didn't feel sorry. I didn't feel anything anymore. I was completely drained.

Coach Clapp came skidding into the locker room, stopping short at the sight of Lauren lying on the floor, her platinum hair draped through the contents of her own stomach, a spot on her head bleeding, then looked to Bella and me, sitting against the lockers, Bella looking horrified. I don't know how I looked. If I looked the way I felt, I was surprised Coach Clapp could see me at all.

"The principal, both of you," Coach Clapp sputtered. Bella stood up, grabbing my upper arm and hoisting me to my feet. Lauren was stirring now. At least I hadn't killed her, I guess. Coach Clapp reached down and helped her to her feet before guiding her to sit on the long bench between the rows of lockers. "Now," he snapped at us. Bella steered me from the room. I was mildly surprised that my feet cooperated.

When we reached the office we were informed by Mrs. Cope that the principal was already with someone and were directed to sit outside of her office. Mrs. Cope wrinkled her nose disapprovingly at the smell coming off of us. I noticed dully that Lauren hadn't eaten lunch - we were covered in a slimy yellow bile, but not much else. I couldn't even bring myself to be disgusted.

"Don't worry," Bella said quietly. "I mean, you'll probably be suspended because of the zero-tolerance policy about fighting, but they can't really do much more given the circumstances, right?"

I shook my head.

"Don't say anything about the video," I said.

"But Rose-" Bella started. I shook my head harder.

"It was just a fight between two bitchy girls," I said firmly. "I can't let them tell my parents about this."

Bella didn't argue. We sat in silence until Mrs. Greene called us into her office.

X

A week of suspension was Mrs. Greene's verdict, with my return contingent on me attending my next appointment with Dr. Cullen as scheduled to obtain his assurance that I wasn't a danger to other students. So I guess that settled that question, at least. She tore my copy from the triplicate disciplinary form and told me to vacate school grounds within ten minutes. Bella was to accompany me to my locker to get my books and then return to gym.

Lauren was shaken up pretty badly and would be watched for a concussion. She also had a pretty beastly bruise across her right temple, and a cut that turned out to be relatively shallow.

Now, how would I explain it to my parents? A suspension they could probably get over, but their daughter walking into the house in the middle of the day covered in vomit from kicking the shit out of a classmate in the locker room? And then there was Emmett. Had he seen the video? How bad was it? Could it really make it look consensual? Would he decide I was a liar, like Lauren? And my parents... they had just started to believe me. Now this what out there. What if it reached them?

I rested my head on my steering wheel, suddenly sick to my stomach. How had everything gone to such complete shit in a matter of hours?

I jumped as someone knocked on my passenger side window, whipping my head around so fast my neck cracked. Jasper raised his hands in a peaceful gesture, grinning. I unlocked the door and he hopped in.

"Shit, my sister's a scrapper!" he exclaimed immediately. "Didn't know you had it in you, Rose. Truly, I couldn't be more proud if you had lynched Royce outright for this shitshow."

I groaned.

"What are you doing?" I asked. Jasper looked at me with wide eyes.

"Didn't you hear? A water pipe mysteriously burst under the auditorium. They think it's going to take oh, about a week to fix. I can't believe you'd just leave me behind like that. An early out isn't an excuse to abandon your family, you know. I mean, just because I would have time to walk home doesn't mean I should have to."

I stared at him incredulously, taking in his appearance for the first time. He looked... grungy. Mud caked his jeans and there was a streak of dirt across his cheekbone. His hair looked messier than normal under his hat.

"Jasper, you didn't," I said incredulously, staring at him in disbelief.

"Couldn't have been more convenient timing, right?" he went on, shrugging as he lit a cigarette. "I don't know, it's almost spooky." He paused, exhaling while surveying my appearance. "We should probably stop at Alice's on the way home. Get you showered and changed. Gotta say, sis, you don't look good."

There was a loud honk behind me and I looked in my review mirror. There was a long queue of cars built up behind me, all of the students evacuating as a result of the broken pipe.

"I owe you one," I said as I threw the car into gear.

"Sister of mine, you owe me way too many to count by this point."

X

I sat on my porch for a solid hour after I got home before the I heard the Jeep turn onto our road. My stomach lurched and I was sure I was going to be sick.

Emmett pulled into his driveway and climbed out, slamming the door hard behind him. I flinched. He seemed pretty ticked off. He threw the butt of one cigarette down and took out another one, lighting it immediately. I had never seen Emmett actually chain smoke. This must be really bad.

I stood up, walking slowly over to him, my arms crossed over my chest against the cold.

"Hey," I said quietly when I reached him. His jaw was clenched, but he nodded. "I guess you're mad about the video."

"Yeah," Emmett said with a weird sort of laugh. He sounded desperate, in a way.

"I don't know what he did, or what the video makes it look like, but I never lied to you, or anyone," I said, the words coming out in a rush. "I never... wanted that with him. I know what people are saying and how it looks and I'm so sorry you had to see something like-"

"I didn't watch it," he said. That threw me off track for a second.

"You didn't?" I asked.

"Fuck, Rose, I don't want to see a video of you getting raped!" he shouted and then closed his eyes, breathing deeply.

"I thought... Royce said on the page that it makes it look consensual," I said quietly. Emmett took a deep pull off his cigarette and then exhaled, blowing the smoke upwards.

"It's fake," he said. "Ben Cheney recognized the audio from a porn flick."

I stared at him, trying to comprehend what he was telling me.

"Royce dubbed a fucking porno into video he took of you," he snapped.

"Are you... mad at me?" I asked. "Really?" I couldn't believe it. If he knew it was fake, why was he mad at me? What had I done? I certainly hadn't agreed to let Royce fucking video tape me!

"What? No, Rose. Fuck. I'm pissed as hell because Royce put a video of him raping you on the internet for everyone to fucking see!" Emmett shouted. I flinched. "And there's nothing I can even fucking do about it because it's not a clean video and I have no idea how to go about getting the fucking original!"

"You could try beating up a random person who's seen it," I said dryly. "It did wonders for me."

Emmett paused, his cigarette halfway to his mouth.

"What?" he asked.

"I beat up Lauren Mallory," I said. He stared at me blankly for a minute. "She called me a liar and a slut, and showed me Royce's post and asked what you would think when you saw it, and I don't know, I just kind of lost it."

Emmett burst out laughing. It was a few minutes before he could respond.

"You couldn't save some of that for Royce?" he asked. I shrugged. He sighed, tossing down the second cigarette. "God, what a long day."

"Well, at least we have a week off to recover," I said.

"Yeah, lucky for the faulty plumbing in that place," he said.

"I think Jasper broke the pipe," I said quietly. Emmett stared at me incredulously for a second.

"Always a step ahead isn't he?" he asked. I shrugged, grinning.

"Is your mom working tonight?" I asked.

"Yeah, but you can't come over, can you? Your parents are still in town," he said.

"I'll figure it out," I said. "I just really don't feel like being alone tonight to think about all of this."

"Whatever you want, babe," he said, sighing and leaning back against the Jeep. "I may need you to keep me calm, anyway. I was halfway to Insight before I calmed down enough to turn around before I actually killed him."

"I may not be willing to stop you this time," I said.

I had no idea what I was going to do, but this time, Royce definitely needed to pay. Deeply. And in a way he wouldn't soon forget. It was no longer enough to just be left alone. I wanted him gone.

X

AN: Phew, what a chapter, yeah? There's a reason people hate Mondays, y'know, and these poor guys have just had a doozy of one.

I don't actually have a ton to say about this chapter... I wrote it out pretty quickly because of the response from the people who got the preview (apparently it was a pretty mean tease) so I haven't had a lot of time to develop a lot of deep and interesting thoughts on it. Cause you know, my thoughts on my chapters are usually just so interesting and deep. /snort

Okay, same as last time! Reviewers get a preview of the next chapter! This was a very taxing chapter to write, so I hope some of you will drop me a line, keep me going. Lol. I look forward to hearing from you!